


Unexpected Tailwinds Of Life

by Tailwind



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Ballet, Ice Skating, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Melancholy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 06:53:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11156574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tailwind/pseuds/Tailwind
Summary: Through life and death there's only be one thing to be sure about.Growing up is hard for everyone involved.





	1. Otabek's Sister

**Author's Note:**

> Exclaimer: There's a tiny amount of JJ x Otabek in this fic

When Otabek was a child his mother used to take him and his sister down to the ballet studio to watch her students practice. She claimed it was necessary for them to grow up with some good taste in culture, but Otabek knew that it was most definitely because his mother couldn’t be bothered to hire a babysitter every time she had practice.

 

The only days he and his sister didn’t follow their mother to the ballet studio was every other tuesday and wednesday when their father came to pick them up. Compared to their mother their father let them do whatever they wanted. Mostly that meant that they listened to classic rock while playing board games. His father was actually a rather respected violinist in the capital’s symphony orchestra. He used to tell them that he used to tour the country with his mother and her ballet troupe and that was how they met.

 

He never talked about how they broke off, and neither did their mother.

 

His sister, who was four years older than him used to tease him, but she was alright anyway. She used to watch ice-skating on TV. At first he thought that it was a girly sport, but when he saw all the cool jumps they could do he changed his mind and ended up sitting next to her. She told him it took greater physique and muscle control to perform an ice-skating routine than to play a full length soccer match. It made him think. He told her that he wanted to become an ice-skater when he grew up. His sister laughed, but encouraged him.

 

His sister talked about ice-skating all the time. She even pushed their mother to let her participate in her ballet classes. Eventually their mother agreed.

 

Otabek wanted to do the same, but was too shy to try it when the older girls were watching. His sister teased him for it, but didn’t hesitate to let him practice with her in their backyard.

 

During the winter she signed up for her first ice-skating classes. Otabek used to watch her practice, sometimes accompanied with their father, sometimes with his aunt and very rarely with his mother. He remember watching his sister closely. The determination in her eyes was just as cold as the ice itself. He admired the effort she put into her practice and she came close to be an idol to him.

 

He begged his parents to let him ice-skate as well. His mother nodded, but told him that he wasn’t old enough and had to wait until next year, when he was seven and had begun school. He was a bit disappointed, but kept practicing ballet with his sister instead.

 

When he finally was old enough to begin ice-skating he began in the class underneath his sister’s and was the only boy there. He was nervous about it at the beginning but soon the girls realized he was pretty good at ice-skating and they all wanted to become friends with him. His sister laughed about it, but also reminded him that if it wasn’t for her teaching him how to dance he wouldn’t be popular amongst the girls.

 

In school he was popular amongst the boys as well. He was the only one who could stand and move around in ice-skates. He could even do some jumps and tricks that even the hockey-boys couldn’t do. 

 

About four years went by. It was beginning to turn to spring. Otabek was eleven and prepared for his first ever competition, as his sister prepared for her second. 

 

Otabek competed against five other boys, while his sister faced twenty-four other girls. She joked that the boys’ competition was so much easier and threatened him, in a sisterly way, that she would break his legs if he didn’t win. He was nervous and fumbled a couple of times, but at the end of it he won. His sister couldn’t stop hugging him after while complaining that she only came in third because the third judge on the left was blind and had a stroke during her performance. He laughed.

 

They continued to practice both ice-skating and ballet. Otabek was eventually moved up into his sister’s league for no other reason than that there was very few girls left in his group. His sister teased him about that as well.

 

In school his skating was cool for about another year until he was twelve and some of the hockey-boys started to think it was dumb. They tried to tease him about it, but was only reminded that he had actually won something, while they had not. That wasn’t very popular, but it made them leave him alone.

 

His sister always told him that if she saw them bother him, she would personally beat them up for him. 

 

At the end of the year Otabek caught a cold right before his second major competition. He tried his hardest to convince his mother to let him compete, but she wouldn’t let him, arguing that there would be other, more important competitions in the future. It meant that his father would go take his sister there while his mother took care of him at home. 

 

He was jealous when he stood in the hallway, watching his sister tie her shoes. She joked that he probably had become better than her anyway, but now he couldn’t prove it until next year. He frowned, but she hugged him tightly, claiming that a measly cold wouldn’t kill her, kissed him on his head and said

 

“I’ll beat you next year.”

 

It came as a shock to him when his mother got a phone call from the hospital. His father and sister had been hit by a truck in a busy intersection and were killed instantly.

 

Otabek was numb. He watched the two closed caskets lower into the ground. Guilt was gnawing through his head. 

 

He should’ve been with them. 

 

But he hadn’t been.

 

His sister’s last words nagged in the back of his mind. _ I’ll beat you next year. _ She expected him to do his absolute best. He wasn’t going to let her down.

 

His mother began to spend most of her time at the ballet studio, barely coming home for dinner. Otabek spent half the last month of school learning how to cook and half moving around the furniture in the living room so that he could practice the ballet moves his sister had taught him.

 

But, it felt empty without her.

 

During the summer he walked past the ice rink every day. Thinking he could catch a glimpse of his sister inside, practicing and smiling as if nothing had happened. But she was never there.

 

Around late fall he began practicing at the rink again. His mother fell out with him. She couldn’t understand how he could continue to practice in the same ice-rink his sister used to practice in. 

 

Otabek understood the pain his mother felt. He felt it himself every day when he entered the rink. But, he refused to forget that ice-skating used to make his sister smile. So, he continued practicing and stopped talking about it.

 

With practice he became even better. At the end of his sixth year as an ice-skater he had just turned thirteen and had won two more competitions. He was approached by his coach and a talent-scout. They offered him a chance to train ballet with the russian ice-skating league during the summer. He told his mother, she didn’t answer. But he didn’t need her to answer, he just needed her to know that he was going to do it.

 

As soon as he arrived in the ballet studio he noticed how well welded the russian skaters were. Most of them carried themselves with a grace he could only dream of. Otabek was easily the oldest in the troupe. His russian wasn’t great either, so he had trouble talking to them as well. Not that they seemed interested in talking to him anyway. 

 

They practiced for a play called ‘the nutcracker’. At the end of the summer they would put up a main performance. Everyone was supposed to practice for the main roles, but only the best would actually get to play the main roles in the main performance.

 

He knew he wasn’t nearly good enough to get such a role. He felt discouraged and was nearly about to give up. 

 

Then he noticed him. 

 

Yuri. 

 

There was a fire in his eyes that reminded Otabek of his sister’s determined ice-cold gaze.

 

Yuri was the youngest participant and easily the best in the league. Almost overqualified for it.

 

When the role assignments were announced Otabek was assigned as one of the rat king’s guards. To his surprise Yuri wasn’t assigned a main role. The others didn’t seem to expect it either.

  
But, Yuri carried himself with pride.

 

His determination fascinated Otabek. He began to think that if there was a skater worthy competing against, Yuri was it.

 

But, Otabek realized that if he wanted to reach Yuri’s level he needed to go somewhere where he could develope his skating at a more durable rate.

 

He researched a lot of places on the internet. But, there were only one place that could offer the level of training he needed. 

 

USA. 

 

He traveled to USA by train and began practicing there. As promised they provided a healthier and much more stable environment. He practiced with people his own age and he became better quite fast. He was offered a spot in the national competitions. Otabek rejected it. If he wanted to make his sister proud he needed to compete for his home country. His coach seemed disappointed, but, it didn’t matter. He took home several scholarships instead. 

 

But, even if Otabek didn’t compete he would watch every bigger competition that was held, trying to judge if he could do better than them or not. He also secretly checked if Yuri was competing or not. And the times he did Otabek watched him outperforming his last performance. He became even more curious about him. There was something fragile, yet explosive about him. Yuri wore his emotions on his sleeve in a way that Otabek could never do.

 

Something changed in him during that year. Feelings that he couldn’t describe started to well up from within him. He could only compare these feelings to the utter respect he had for his sister. It was frustrating.

 

He began to listen to music a lot. At first he tried to listen to the typical compositions of ice-skating music, but found soon enough that they didn’t apply to his feelings. Fond memories of playing board games with his father and sister while listening to classic rock resurfaced. He began searching for the music his father had played for them, but only with some success.

 

For the most part the music was good, but it reminded him of times he could never get back. It filled him with sorrow. He began to search for heavier, darker stuff.  

 

Still something was missing. The music wasn’t quite soothing the sorrow he felt. He began composing his own music. At first he thought he could use the music in his ice-skating routines, but he realized his feelings was way too dark for that kind of crowd. But, yet again he didn’t want to waste all the time he had put into his pieces and began to post his music online. He was met with good critiques.

 

He was offered a place in the canadian ice-skating team. He accepted and traveled there shortly after.

 

“Hey, the name’s JJ. Do you want to become friends?” A dark haired boy smiled wide enough at him to snap a muscle in his cheek when he arrived at the ice-rink. Otabek figured it was a canadian way of saying hello. He was amused. He accepted. The boy was very talkative, curious, but yet confident. He made Otabek feel welcome for the first time in years. 

 

JJ nestled his way into Otabek’s life. Inviting him to coffee, lunch, movie-evenings, you name it. Sometimes he even invited him to his house. But, as soon as JJ realized Otabek had his own apartment, he started to want to hang out there instead. And Otabek wasn’t going to deny him, knowing that it was better to have some kind of friend than none at all.

 

They listened to music together a lot. JJ wasn’t shy to share his favourites. Otabek was more careful. He shared the most mainstream music he liked. But, in the end he slipped in one and another darker song. JJ seemed to like them. It took a while, but eventually Otabek was confident enough to share something he had written himself.

 

“Now, this is what I call music.” JJ said. “You’ve got talent.”   
  


Otabek felt shy at that moment.

 

After a couple of months his state of mind started to change. He felt happier. His music started to sound more upbeat.

 

“You know, this is the kind of music they play on the radio.” JJ said.

 

When Otabek turned fifteen JJ decided to throw him a party. A lot of people showed up. At some point JJ shouted something over the music. Some cheered. Otabek didn’t hear what he said. However JJ changed the music and soon Otabek heard familiar tones from the speakers. At first he was struck with a cold chill. 

 

It was his music. 

 

The people around him cheered and continued partying. Some even came up to him and told him that his music was awesome. Otabek was almost proud of himself.   
  
JJ continued to smile throughout the night.

 

About a month later Otabek’s skating had improved a thousand times. JJ was partly to thank for that. He wasn’t shy to let him know about his flaws. Otabek felt more polished than ever.

 

“People are asking for you to come and DJ at their parties.” JJ said one night.

 

JJ sat in the low couch in the corner of his one-room apartment. The evening was beginning to turn into night. Otabek was lying on his back, trying to read a book. JJ became a bit annoyed that Otabek wasn’t paying attention to him and walked over to and snatched the book out of his hands. He laid down next to him.

 

“She looked up at him with huge eyes. The rain had soaked her clothes and she was chilled to the bone. ‘Why did you follow me out here?’ ” JJ read out loud. “Oh, no wonder you weren’t listening.” JJ teased. “This is where they kiss.”   
  
JJ proceeded to read through the emotional dialogue out loud.  He reached the part when the main characters’ lips were about to meet. Otabek couldn’t listen anymore and snatched the book back.

 

“What’s the matter? Are you too shy to hear about people kissing?” JJ continued to tease. 

 

Otabek laughed. 

 

JJ laughed as well.

 

Until their gazes met again. There was a strange air between them. Somehow it felt like both of them knew what was about to happen. And both of them were strangely okay with it. The distance between them closed and they kissed. At first it was light, almost testing the limits. Then it grew deeper, softly exploring each other.

 

They pulled away and looked at each other. JJ smiled and excused himself, while Otabek rolled onto his back again.

 

They never really talked about it, but it didn’t stop them from closing the distance between them every now and then, kissing again and again and again.

 

But, that was all it was. Kisses. Between friends.

 

“You’re good enough to compete at an international level.” JJ said one day at the ice-rink. “So, why don’t you?

 

Otabek stretched his back. “I’m going to compete for Kazakhstan.”

 

JJ nodded. Then looked at him as if he had thought of something important. “Ah, I get it, it’s because you want to impress a girl back at home, right?”

 

Otabek frowned. He understood the essence of what JJ was saying, but thought he somehow knew about his sister and assumed he was talking about her. “Yes.”

 

“Oh, wow.” JJ seemed a bit baffled by his answer. “Well, I’ve also met a girl I want to impress.”

 

Otabek nodded.

 

“I’m going to marry her.” JJ smiled widely.

 

No further words were needed. That was it. The kisses stopped at that point.

 

When Otabek turned sixteen he went back to Kazakhstan. He heard that Yuri was aiming to compete in the grand prix. Otabek saw his opportunity. He signed up for every competition he could. And performed good enough to earn himself a spot in the grand prix.

 

He called JJ and told him about it. JJ was extremely ecstatic and exclaimed that he was also going to compete at the grand prix and claimed himself the winner about sixteen times before Otabek hung up.

 

But, when Otabek finally stood in the grand prix ice-rink he couldn’t find the courage to talk to Yuri. Suddenly his obsession with meeting him felt stalkish. Yuri didn’t know who he was. It’d seem creepy if he started to claim his respect for him right there and then. He needed to make an impression at first. At least enough to prove to Yuri that he didn’t want to be just another fan to him.

 

He ended up at third place.

 

It was surreal. JJ hugged him tightly.

 

Next year. 

 

He was going to find a way to talk to Yuri at the next grand prix.


	2. Yuri and Prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Growing up is hard for everyone involved, including Yuri, his grandfather, Polina and last but not least, Prince.

Yuri was a lonely child. His mother was distant and spent more time away from their tiny apartment than in it. Sometimes his mother called his grandfather to babysit him, often not. Yuri learned quickly how to call him on his own. His grandfather always showed up without questions asked. But, even then there were times when he couldn’t call. Like, when his mother left late at the evenings.

 

Sometimes his grandfather brought Yuri to his place. It was fun at his place. Yuri was allowed to play without being hushed. And sometimes nice old ladies and stern old men would visit them for a cup of coffee. The nice old ladies would always chat cheerfully with Yuri. And he would chat back as lively as he could. 

 

One of the nicest ladies lived in the apartment next door. If he was really lucky she would invite them over for tea. She had six cats. Yuri always tried to pet them all. But, there were always that one very beautiful golden tabby who managed to avoid him at all costs.

 

It always sat at the very top of the bookshelf in the corner. 

 

“Forgive him, dear.” the nice old cat lady said one day. “Prince was kicked by a nasty bully when he was a kitten, so he’s kind of scared of everyone now.” she rose from the coffee table with some issue. “But, in the true nature of his name, he has a tendency to act like royalty every once in awhile. So, let’s see if we can lure him down.”

 

She handed Yuri a couple of cat treats. 

 

Yuri reached up to the golden tabby. With some hesitation it made its way down. He held his hand still. It sniffed the treat cautiously, buffed his hand a couple of times with its nose and nibbled his fingers. Then it made its way down further. He saw the little pink tongue catch the treat and bury it between the teeth. He reached out further, testing the limits and petted the tabby. The tabby started to purr lowly.

 

“I think he likes you.” said the nice old lady with a smile.

 

Yuri felt like he had just connected with something out of this world.

 

At the end of the summer the old lady next door visited them.

 

“It’s not much, but since my granddaughter claimed to be too old for this I thought that you might like it, dear.” she said. She put a pencil case covered in cat pictures in Yuri’s hands. “If you don’t want it, maybe you could give it to a friend.”

 

“I want it.” said Yuri. He took the pencil case and looked at the pictures. They were all beautiful, but not as beautiful as Prince.

  
A week later Yuri was excited to start school. The girls were nice. The teachers were cool. But as soon as the other boys discovered his pencil case they started to tease him about it. They claimed he was a girl for liking cats. He got so mad he threw a punch at the biggest of the boys. It ended with his grandfather picking him up early.

 

Yuri fought with the biggest boy throughout the year. 

 

Yuri sat at the dinner table when his grandfather talked to his teacher over the phone. He knew that the other boys pointed him out as the problem. His grandfather was lost at what to do with him. His teacher suggested that Yuri might just need to try out for a sport. ‘To get his frustrations out.’

 

His grandfather agreed.

 

His grandfather climbed up to the attic and dug up Yuri’s old ice-skates. Yuri tried them on, but they were too small. His grandfather muttered something about growing like weed. He dug deeper and handed Yuri a bigger pair of well-worn ice-skates.

 

His mother’s name was written on the inside of them. 

 

Yuri sat on one of the wooden benches along the ice-rink. His helmet was a bit too big. His grandfather tied the laces on Yuri’s ice-skates. They waited for the older girls to finish their figure skating practice. He watched how they jumped, did tricks and laughed at each other whenever someone fell. They seemed to have fun.

 

Yuri didn’t have fun. He was the only boy wearing white ice-skates. He knew what the other boys thought of him. He grasped the hold of his hockey-club a bit harder.

 

The girls left the rink. The boys went out on the ice as soon as the ice resurfacer left.

 

“Remember to have fun.” His grandfather said.

 

Yuri nodded. 

 

It went well. The kids playing hockey thought the spikes at the toe of his ice-skates were badass. They all talked about wanting a pair for themselves.

 

Yuri began to play hockey once a week. The boys in his class suddenly thought he was cool. The biggest boy even tried to make friends with him, but Yuri didn’t feel it.

 

A couple of months later Yuri went inside the ice-rink a little before his grandfather did. He watched the girls again. There was one particular girl who was a lot better at skating than the others. He watched her from a part of the rink without any safety glass. 

 

She saw him stare at her and whispered something to her friends. She took off and skated towards Yuri as fast as the wind. When she was just in front of him she changed angle on her blades and showered Yuri with shaved ice. She laughed.

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” She said loud enough for her friends to hear.

  
Yuri blinked and said. “That was really cool.”

 

She seemed to be caught off guard. “Huh?”

 

“None of the boys can do that.” Yuri said. “Can only girls do it?”

 

She laughed. “You’re too cute!” She said and shook her head. “Anything girls can do, boys can do too.” She smiled. “And the other way around.”

 

“Can I do it? Can you teach me?” Yuri said.

 

Her coach blew a whistle and shouted for the girls to move away from the ice.

 

“You’re so cute, I might just do it.” She said. “I’m Mila by the way.”

 

“I’m Yuri.”

 

“Well Yuri, maybe you should start figure skating instead.” Mila said, slowly skating away from him backwards. “It’s a lot more fun here.”

 

About a month later his hockey team was going to have a friendly hockey match with the team from the neighbor school. Already before they entered the ice-rink the neighbor boys were taunting them. As soon as they saw Yuri’s _ girl _ ice-skates the taunts targeted him. Yuri tried to ignore them. 

 

It worked. Until one of the neighbor team boys took his hockey-club and another skated shoulder first into him. Both taunted him about his girly ice-skates. Yuri got mad and kicked the later boy. Then he jumped up at the first boy who fell face first into the ice. A whistle blew. Both their coaches skated over to them. A lot of people yelled. It wasn’t until Yuri saw his grandfather’s disappointed face that Yuri heard the silence throughout the rink.

 

He left the rink without saying a word. His grandfather followed. They went home in silence. 

 

The next day Yuri was a legend at his school. The boys were talking about how the neighbor school boys had taunted them and how Yuri, as the hero he was, had sliced one of the boy’s shin open and broken another one’s nose in revenge.

 

His coach and teacher however didn’t take the news too well. Yuri was seated at his desk when his grandfather stepped into the classroom. Both his coach and teacher proceeded to explain that they couldn’t encourage that kind of violence. Yuri had to find another sport to practice.

 

About a week later Yuri sat and petted the golden tabby distantly. He listened to his grandfather lowly declaring that he didn’t know what to do with Yuri to the nice old lady next door.  She was as concerned as he was and half blamed herself for what had happened. 

 

Yuri felt guilty. If it weren’t for the boys taunting him everything would be fine.

 

He thought of the girls at the ice-rink. They always seemed to have so much more fun.

 

“I want to start figure-skating.” he said one night.

 

His grandfather seemed surprised. But, he smiled at him. He squeezed his shoulder in an encouraging way and started to call around. He got a positive answer within a couple of minutes.

 

Yuri stood at the edge of the rink again. He looked at the girls around him. Some had approached him as soon as they saw he was a boy. They said that it was awesome to have a boy in their group. They were all about his age. Yuri was a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be practicing with Mila. But, he figured if he’d become better they might just let him practice with the older girls.

 

He started to practice harder than anyone. It was a lot more fun than hockey. First of all; nobody was  making fun of him. Second; he didn’t need to rely on other people. Third; he could pretty much decide what to practice and not. Soon he was good enough to completely ignore the girls’ practice routines.

 

His coach approached both him and his grandfather one day. She smiled and said that if Yuri wanted he could skip a year at the start of next season. But, she also said that Yuri would have to start practice ballet during the summer if he wanted to be accepted. She recommended them to call a person called Lilia Baranovskaya.

 

The ballet academy almost rejected him. They insisted that Yuri was too old to start practicing. He was only eight. But, as soon as his grandfather mentioned the coach’s name the tone changed completely.

 

“Why didn’t you say that first?” The woman said. “We’ll sign him up to a class which begins in two weeks.”

 

Once again Yuri was the only boy in the room. But, it didn’t matter. The girls all came up to him and wanted to talk with him. Though the general tone in their voices were a bit snobbish they were still pretty nice to him.

 

He practiced hard. But, these girls were serious. They were a lot harder to surpass than the figure-skating girls.  But, Yuri thought that if he could surpass these girls he’d definitely end up practicing with Mila next season. 

 

His ballet teacher was hard to impress. But, at the end of the summer she still recommend him to practice with the older figure-skating girls. With the condition that he’d continue to practice ballet in her class.

 

Yuri was excited to begin. He was bumped up to a group of girls ranging from ten to fourteen year old. Mila was among them. She was more than excited to see him there.

 

“I can’t believe you actually did it!” She said and hugged him hard. “You’re too cute!”

 

She showed him off to the other girls and chatted happily with him. Mila was still better than him at ice-skating. She taught him a lot of tricks. She said that boys usually didn’t perform the same jumps that the girls did. But, Yuri didn’t mind. He wanted to do everything she did.

 

He became better than most of the girls. He and Mila pressured each other to become even better. At the end of the season they were the best in their age group.

 

Yuri was proud of himself.

 

Right at the end of the season Yuri sat in the couch at his grandfather’s place. His grandfather sat down next to him. “I’ve got some bad news. Polina has passed away.”

 

“Who?” Yuri asked.

 

His grandfather sighed heavily. “Our neighbor. The lady with the cats.”

 

It took a moment for Yuri to process it. Then he began to cry. His grandfather comforted him.

 

“What’s going to happen to Prince?” Yuri said.

 

“I don’t know.” His grandfather said. “I’ll hear with her family.”

 

“Can I have him?” Yuri said.

 

His grandfather patted him on his back. “I don’t think so.” He said,

 

Yuri watched as the relatives of the nice old neighbor lady emptied the apartment. He had asked about Prince about seven times to four different people, but neither of them actually gave him an answer. His grandfather encouraged Yuri to go back inside.

 

Yuri wondered what his grandfather was doing. It felt like an eternity before he was back again.

 

“Yuratchka?” said his grandfather. “Look.”

 

His grandfather sounded a lot more content than usual. Yuri went to look. His grandfather held up Prince. Yuri squealed.

 

Prince lived up to his name. It was hard to get the cat’s attention if it wasn’t food related. But, Yuri loved him anyway.

 

About a week before the summer vacations started Lilia came up to him. She said that there was a much more suitable summer program for him. It was designed for teenagers who wanted to pursue figure-skating rather than ballet. She said it didn’t mattered that he wasn’t a teenager yet, he was good enough to join them. He was guaranteed a place if he wanted it.

 

Yuri accepted it.

 

It was a camp for boys. He was cautious at first. His experience with other boys weren’t the best. But, they pretty much ignored his presence. Yuri was relieved. He could practice on his own and grow as he wanted. 

 

They were supposed to practice for a ballet performance called ‘The nutcracker’. Everyone was meant to practice the main roles, but only the best would be assigned the roles in the main performance. 

 

There were two roles that everyone wanted. One was the nutcracker because the one who played the nutcracker would dance with a girl. The other was the evil rat king because they would be allowed to wield a plastic sword in their performance.

 

Everyone practiced as hard as they could. But, at the end of it Yuri was one of the best dancers there. It didn’t sit well with some of the other boys. Yuri hoped for the role as the evil rat king.

 

“Plisetsky, your role is soldier number two.” said Yakov.

 

It was oddly silent in the room for a moment. Then the whispers started. Yuri felt judged by the other boys. But, he wasn’t going to make a scene there. He walked up to Yakov after the practice and asked him why he didn’t get one of the main parts.

 

“You’re undeniable one of the best dancers we have here.” said Yakov. “However, your build is too delicate for the main roles. If you keep the practice up maybe you’ll get a main role next year.”

 

Next year. 

 

Bullshit.

 

Yakov offered Yuri a spot in his ice-skating team at the end of the summer. Yuri accepted. The team was a lot different from the summer practice one. First of all, the age ranged a lot between the skaters. Yuri was still the youngest. Second, some girls were practicing there too.

 

Yuri was surprised when he saw a familiar face in the other half of the ice rink.

 

Mila skated up to him and showered him in shaved ice. She chatted happily with him. Said that when their old coach had heard Yuri was practicing with Yakov he had immediately reached out to Yakov to let Mila start there as well. 

 

“I guess he noticed my magnificent talent.” she said. And laughed. 

 

They continued to pressure each other to do better throughout the year. When summer was up again, they parted with a promise to be even better at the start of the next season.

 

Yuri was still the youngest at the summer camp, but not by much. This time they were practicing for yet another performance. Yet again Yuri was denied the chance of playing the main role.

 

He wasn’t bitter.

 

At thirteen years old Yuri participated and won in his first junior competition. He beat a lot of boys older than him.

 

He was excited to show off his medal to Mila. But, his glory was quickly overshadowed by one of the oldest skaters in their team. Victor. Victor was the best skater in their group. And he had just placed third in his fifth world-wide competition. 

 

Yuri was not bitter. He’d do better next time and surpass Victor as well.

  
He practiced harder. But, Victor was a presence that was hard to deny. His smile and voice was constantly heard and seen in the rink. Everyone liked him. Even Mila talked about him.

  
Yuri had to surpass him.

 

Summer camp started up again. Still no main role.

 

At fourteen Yuri won his second junior competition. He was proud for a short while. Victor happened to win his first grand prix competition.

 

This year they practiced for ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

 

“Yuri, you’ll play Mercutio.” said Yakov.

 

It wasn’t a main role, but it was important. Yuri was proud. 

 

Mila was assigned the role as Juliet. Yuri was jealous.

 

At fifteen Yuri made his senior debut. He had practiced hard to beat Victor this year. Only to hear that Victor was retiring. What a joke.

 

He continued to practice, but without the chance of beating Victor it suddenly didn’t feel as fun. Yuri wasn’t going to quit though. There were still records to beat.

 

Around a year later Katsuki happened.

 

Fucking Katsuki.

 

Yuri hadn’t practiced his ass off all his life to have some overpriced backalley pork bowl beat both him and Victor at the thing they clearly knew better.

 

He was going to beat them.

 

Both of them.

 

And it was going to happen at this grand prix.

 

Just fucking watch.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!


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